Are your political views shaped by your environment? Do you come to your beliefs after long, careful, thoughtful evaluation? Or, does our personality drive our political beliefs? And, what creates that basic personality?

This has been in the news lately:

Nicholas Kristof writes: “…some humans are particularly alert to threats, particularly primed to feel vulnerable and perceive danger. Those people are more likely to be conservatives. Our Politics May Be All in Our Head

See, they think the world is a very scary place! Well, they might be right at least some of the time. But, does that mean you can never leave your zip code??

We’ll get the low-down with Dr. Smith who has spent most of the past decade studying the biological basis of political attitudes and behavior. With John R. Hibbing, he co-directs the Political Physiology Lab at Nebraska, and has helped pioneer the use of techniques from psychophysiology, behavioral genetics, neuroscience and cognitive psychology to study political temperament.

Ok. Nuclear not looking so good these days. Petroleum? Er, that’s why we need the military. Coal? Domestic but yucky. Natural gas? Cleaner but is still carbon and oh that fracking. (And can’t regulate it – no siree). Wind? Bad for birds, and when it’s not windy, well… Solar? Still a expensive but may be too late – China is kicking our butts.

So, what to do, what to do?! Well, there is another option according to some people who think a lot about these things… It’s clean. It’s plentiful. It’s safe. But, if you’re at all normal, you’ve never heard of it. (kidding).

One tiny detail… No one knows how make it commercially viable yet, but other countries are full speed ahead while the US is just dabbling. Countries like China, Korea, a European consortium, and India.

Some say this IS the energy of the future. It’s just a matter of whether we make it or buy it. Probably from the Chinese. Like everything else.

This week, the Egyptian government shut down the internet for anyone within the country. Not only that, but Egypt disappeared from the internet from the outside. To which media outlets did Egyptians turn to organize the protests? How did they facilitate communications? What about foreigners still in the country?

Could that happen in the US? Should the US government have the capability to shut it down? Who else controls the internet or the content that we have access to?

If it did shut down the internet, what alternative media outlets exist?

What, what was that legislation that Joe Lieberman proposed giving the government the authority to shut things down? Yes, he did.